YMMV / Chowder

• Accidental Aesop:
  • "Paint the Town", arguably has one given that it ends with Chowder running away from the problem he caused.
  • The finale arguably contains one. Panini marrying Chowder implies that all the stalking and harassment she did throughout the series was okay and paid off in the end.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Was adult!Chowder really happy with ending up married to adult!Panini in the Distant Finale or did he just finally give up on fighting it? He seemed very nonplussed by the situation, so it's hard to tell. Though his reaction to the child versions of him and his wife showing up seem to imply they've outgrown their old dynamic and their relationship is now more mutual as adults.
• Awesome Music:
  • The Veggie Guru's song from "The Garden".
  • The song the beans sing from "The Sing Beans".
  • "Grubble Gum Katamari" from "Grubble Gum".
  • Sweet from "The Puckerberry Overlords".
  • Mung's love song from "Mung on the Rocks".
  • "Fireheart" from "The Fire Breather".
  • Mung's rainbow song from "Big Food".
  • "How Do I Say I Love You" from "The Toots" is a beautiful 1930s-esque song that sounds as if it's sending off the show itself.
  • "I Don't Wanna Grow Up", Chowder's Carpe Diem song from "Chowder Grows Up", is a testament to how good Nicky Jones can actually sing.
• Base-Breaking Character: Panini. Some find her Yandere attitude to be ridiculously funny, while others are hugely turned off by the Double Standard she invokes.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In "The Flying Flinger Lingons", Truffles and Mung get knocked down by sacks of money by the titular acrobats. Shnitzel laughs at this, until a bird flies from nowhere and drops a pie on him.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Chowder's "I just wanted to be a chef so bad that I got carried away and tried to kill everyone in the process." (Beat). "Again."
  • Fifty years ago, Mung got a Queen Meach away from her Soldier Meach guards and made her into a pie. In response, the Soldiers got into his workplace and beat him up. And again the next day. And again, in the bathroom. This went on for twenty-five years. It wasn't even the pie that annoyed them-they didn't bother him until after he ate it (they lampshade this with a bit of unrestrained relief when the guy who commissioned the pie they make in the current episode eats it).
  • When describing why having a sense of taste is good, Chowder childishly describes it as giving one the opportunity to smack their lips. Then he adds that eating too much will result in vomiting. And then he adds if you're really hungry, it allows you to eat up the vomited food. The villain in the episode is clearly disgusted and cuts him off as he says this.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: It's fairly common to interpret Chowder as autistic. He's generally distracted by things, isn't too aware of his surroundings, and doesn't pick up on people's feelings, but is also incredibly passionate to fulfill his dream of becoming a master chef, tying into him being fixated with food.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Gazpacho was beloved for being a Cloudcuckoolander with endearingly cynical quips (who's voiced by Dana Snyder, no less), so much so he got parody commercials during the show's prime years.
  • Sergeant Hoagie, and by extension the rest of the Marzipan Police Department, are considered one of the funniest examples of Police Are Useless in animation, with many citing their wishy-washy dynamic as being a barrel of chuckles.
  • Chestnut is widely beloved among fans thanks to the dissonance between his small size and both his baritone and strength, as well as his catchy "dink-a-loo, dink-a-lee" songs. Being voiced by Tone Lōc for his first couple appearances definitely added to his charm.
  • Foie Gras has a fairly large fanbase for being hilariously creepy and voiced by George Takei.
  • Grits, in spite of only having one appearance in "The Broken Part", is a fan-favorite for how much of a Good Samaritan he is, happily teaching Chowder how to make easy money and helping him with feetza preparations.
  • Ceviché and Pate are by far the least focused-on apprentice and mentor pair of the show, but both are incredibly popular with fans. Ceviché is beloved for his easygoing nature and how easy it is to feel sorry for him due to being a Hopeless Suitor to Panini, whereas Pate is beloved for how much of a Large Ham he is and his occasional appearances in theatrical performances. It also helps that, unlike Mung, Endive, and Stilton, Pate never looks down upon or belittles his apprentice, making the two a fresh change of pace.
  • Despite appearing only once and near the end of the series, Marmalade got a lot of fans' attention for being a Nice Girl and being pretty much Chowder's Only Friend that's his age. Being voiced by Mary Mouser certainly helps.
  • Amongst the show's Japanese fanbase, Scraps is a very popular character due to his Shrinking Violet nature coming across as incredibly Moe, as well as the prospect of him being Chowder's own apprentice. Japanese fanart tends to depict Scraps alongside Chowder, Panini, Gorgonzola, and Ceviché's child selves.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Some fans don't care much for the Distant Finale, finding it to be an out-of-place and unnecessary conclusion that was tacked onto an otherwise lighthearted and episodic animated comedy, as well as for having adult Chowder hook up with Panini and Shnitzel with Endive, given the negative implications and Double Standard both parings entail.
• Fan Nickname: Gorgonzola has a handful of nicknames. "Gorgy" being the most popular.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • With The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack and Total Drama as these 3 shows are often considered to be the highlights of late 2000s Cartoon Network.
  • Chowder fans also like The Amazing World of Gumball. Those two Cartoon Network shows have plenty similarities. Both shows set in bizarre worlds with anthropomorphic food items. Both have boys with feline and rabbit features (Chowder has rabbit ears and cat tail, Gumball is genetically half-rabbit and looks exactly like a cat) as protagonists, their ill-tempered and strict mother figures and both shows mix various styles of animation. Also, Nicky Jones, Chowder's VA, was also the voice of Gumball in the pilot which also might be a partial reason.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • This show is very popular in Japan to the point it has many doujin media originated from that country.
  • The show has also seen great praise from Mexico and Latin America, as many videos that show up in YouTube will often differ from the original English version or the Mexican Spanish dub.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • A purple animal character with a humongous appetite with a blue, white-haired character who tries to keep him in line. Is it possible that Akira Toriyama might have seen this show in the 2000's and became the basis for Beerus and Whis?
  • A purple, catlike being named after a certain savory soup with a strong affinity for food. Are we referring to Chowder or Nekomata Okayu? Bonus points for "My Big Fat Stinky Wedding" having a character who looks like Chowder named Porridge, which is Okayu in English.
• Ho Yay: Surprisingly, Mung and Shnitzel have a good amount of flirty scenes together.
  Mung: Diet?! I'm quite proud of my girlish figure, thank you! I caught you staring, Shnitzel.
• Jerkass Woobie: Gorgonzola is an egotistical boy most of the time, but "The Apprentice Games" implies that he's got a hard home life, growing up in poverty with a master who doesn't seem to like him at all.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "I'M NOT YOUR BOYFRIEND!", It even has a Voice Clip Song based on it right here.
  • "Radda radda radda".
  • The show's lack of fourth wall has produced many examples with the most famous being "the carwash scene".
  • "At last, the roof goes on and nothing can go wrong...OH NO, IT ALL WENT WRONG!" People have used it to represent everything from tragic plot twists to fandom porn to the 2016 American election.
  • The show's theme song, particularly the opening verse, "YOU TAKE THE MOON AND YOU TAKE THE SUN", has been seen making the rounds, mostly with Sensory Abuse remixes of it.
  • Edits of Mung's grotesque ranting design are popular shitposting material.
  • The image of the "Comedy Gold" book is often used in reaction to jokes, whether praising them ironically or genuinely.
  • This line of dialogue has become pretty popular on TikTok, and is typically used with clips of pets.
    Mung: Yeah, sometimes I got to beat the ladies off with a stick! (Scene cuts to Mung literally beating Truffles off with a stick) Back, woman! Back, I said!
• Periphery Demographic: It's among many favored CN shows from the 2000s era that is praised by adult audiences for its clever humor, originality, and memorable characters.
• Retroactive Recognition: The show features a recently teenaged Liliana Mumy as the voice of Panini, a full decade before she went on to be known as Leni Loud from The Loud House.
• The Scrappy:
  • Mr. Fugu is by and large the most hated character amongst the fanbase, due to not only being an Entitled Bastard and a Gasshole responsible for some of the show's worst instances of Nausea Fuel, but also for being a Karma Houdini who never faces comeuppance for his obnoxious behavior. The only upside about him to fans is that he's usually accompanied by his valet, Foie Gras, who's voiced by legendary actor George Takei, but that's more of a compliment to Foie Gras than to Mr. Fugu himself.
  • Reuben is another character that the fanbase can't stand. Aside from being voiced by Paul Reubens, best known as Pee-wee Herman, there's nothing about his character that's likable, with him always trying to find ways to make Mung's life miserable, and being extremely lecherous towards Endive. Despite all of his wrongdoings, he's also a Karma Houdini who almost never gets punished for his selfish behavior, causing fans to dread any episode where Reuben is prominently featured.
• Seasonal Rot: Season 1 is widely seen as the best, and while Season 2 is base-breaking, it still has its fair share of defenders. The final season, however, is often criticized by fans thanks to Flanderization of a number of characters (such as Chowder's lack of an indoor voice and smarts, Panini's stalkerness reaching disturbing levels, etc.), the storylines being more boring and mean-spirited, the animation becoming more wacky and bouncy, the Fourth Wall gags becoming overused, and in general just not being nearly as clever or charming as the earlier episodes. The series-finale is generally well-received, but still broke the base to some.
• Signature Scene: Even those who haven't watched the show are likely to know of the memetic lollipop scene from "Shnitzel Makes A Deposit", due it being an Overly Long Gag that remains absolutely hilarious throughout.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: Many a Shout-Out and Homage features one, including the memorable reference to Katamari Damacy.
  • The episode "Big Ball" featured a Jimmy Hart version of the FOX Sports theme.
  • In "Chowder Grows Up", Chowder's song is MIGHTY familiar to those that remember the old Toys "R" Us jingle.
  • The Exchanges Song ("This for that/And Those for these/And These for Those...") is one for the Modern Major General Song.
• This Is Your Premise on Drugs: True enough to its 70s homages, Chowder is pretty much what you get when you mix popular drugs from that era with a cooking show from The Food Network (in its pre-Food Porn era).
• Ugly Cute: Marmalade has a pig nose, a Childish Tooth Gap, and a really messy sense of fashion, but she's such a sweet kid that it makes her look more adorable than ugly.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Chowder is meant to be seen as abducting Kimchi in their backstory from "My Big Fat Stinky Wedding", and thus undeserving to keep him as pointed out by Porridge. However, from Chowder's perspective, Kimchi looked like he was about to get devoured by a vicious crocodile, with no way for Chowder to know that it was his home, and Chowder is younger than he already is in their backstory, meaning his imagination and the fears that come with it are even more active then than they are in present day, making it hard to fault him for trying to keep Kimchi away from the crocodile despite the circumstances.
• Unintentional Period Piece: In one episode, Chowder scribbles on the screen and gets yelled at. After it's cleaned up he points over at the Cartoon Network logo and asks "What about that one?" to which Gazpacho responds, "Ehh, that one doesn't come off. I've tried." The channel icon is part of the episode, making it obvious that the logo has changed since the episode's initial airing.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Ceviché's a boy, despite his girly pink hair and leotard. Most people don't become aware of this until Chowder states his gender more than halfway in the series.
• Vindicated by History: This show premiered around the time Cartoon Network was working on a recipe to phase-in more live-action shows and movies onto the channel while what few cartoons they had left were largely brushed off as awful at worst and mediocre at best.^note Mainly this show, Camp Lazlo, My Gym Partner's a Monkey, Squirrel Boy, Class of 3000, and The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. Only now do people see it as a pretty good show that didn't get the recognition or the respect that it deserved.

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